For the ninth session of Looking back , we move our focus to Anhui. With regard to contemporary art in Anhui, it is widely known that as a prelude to the “Great Exhibition of Chinese Modern Art” held at the National Art Museum of China in 1989, Gao Minglu organized the “Symposium on the Creation of Chinese Modern Art” in Huangshan, Anhui Province, from November 22-24, 1988, known as the “Huangshan Conference”, which was an important event for Chinese contemporary art in Anhui. Gao planned the “Symposium on the Creation of Chinese Modern Art” in Huangshan, Anhui Province, from November 22 to 24, 1988, known as the “Huangshan Conference”, which was an important event for Chinese contemporary art in Anhui Province. Other than that, it seems that contemporary art in Anhui, including performance art, has not been well known. According to the historical records we have collected and sorted out, the earliest performance art works in Anhui took place in 2001, when Mao Xiaolang and Zuo Jing curated the exhibition Reinventing Society: Chinese Artists’ Conceptual Reflections in 2001, and 2008 was an important point in the development of performance art in Anhui, which was closely related to the fact that the artist Chen Yufei joined the faculty of the Hefei University of Technology. He strategically and consistently held performance art workshops, attracting a large number of young people to participate in the study, creation and practice of performance art, and organized a large number of on-site art activities, such as the “Recycling Station Art Group”, “Performance Art Open Class (Campus)”, etc., attracting a large number of people. It has also organized a large number of on-site art activities, such as the “Recycling Station Art Group” and the “Performance Art Open Class (Campus)”, which have attracted the participation of many young artists and created a large number of behavioral art works, and greatly promoted the development of behavioral art in Anhui. Together with the continuous creation of artists such as Huang Zhen, Hu Yuepeng, many Yu, and Mr. Nuan, performance art in Anhui has entered an unprecedented period of activity.
In the ninth session of Warm Tales, the Archives invited artist Chen Yufei to be responsible for collecting and organizing the archives of performance art in Anhui Province. Due to the long period of time, a group of artists in the early period were already very old, and many of them had already ceased their creations, so the documents were mostly scattered, and the historical facts had to be gradually found out through cross-examination from various parties, which made the work of collecting and organizing the documents not a little bit difficult. Therefore, we are especially grateful to the artists Chen Yufei and Guo Haoyuan, who spent a great deal of effort in contacting the artists and patiently communicating with them before the facts of each piece of artwork and activity gradually came to light. The fact that the collection and sorting was completed within the scheduled time is undoubtedly thanks to the understanding and support of many other people as well! Friends such as Zuo Jing, Hu Yupeng, and Bao Dong either patiently participated in verifying and sorting out the information, or provided historical documents about the performance art.
Chen Yufei
Lives and works in Hefei
Studied at Anhui Normal University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Braunschweig, Germany.
Works in the media of painting, installation, video, live art, theater performance, writing, and art projects
Solo and group exhibitions in China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), USA, Germany, Canada, Italy, Sweden, UK, Russia, Australia, Greece, Japan, Korea, etc.
On August 15, 2022, at 8:00 pm, the ninth session of Warm Up: “Anhui Performance Art Archive” was held at the Archives, hosted by artist Chen Yufei. With regard to contemporary art in Anhui, it is widely known that as a prelude to the “Great Exhibition of Chinese Modern Art” held at the National Art Museum of China in 1989, Gao Minglu curated the “Symposium on the Creation of Chinese Modern Art”, known as the “Symposium on the Creation of Chinese Modern Art”, which was held in Huangshan, Anhui Province, from November 22-24, 1988, and which is now known as the “Symposium on the Creation of Chinese Modern Art”. Gao planned the “Symposium on the Creation of Chinese Modern Art” in Huangshan, Anhui Province, from November 22 to 24, 1988, known as the “Huangshan Conference”, which was an important event for Chinese contemporary art in Anhui Province.
Other than that, it seems that contemporary art in Anhui, including performance art, has not been well known. According to the historical records that we have collected and sorted out, the earliest pieces of performance art in Anhui took place in 2001, when Mao Xiaolang and Zuo Jing curated the exhibition “Reinventing Society: Chinese Artists’ Conceptual Reflections in 2001”. In addition to the group’s collective creation of a performance installation, “100 Years of Unmolded Wall,” artists Chen Yufei, Huang Zhen, Fang Xudong, Luo Zhi, Sun Jianchun, Wu Chenjun, Zhang Yongmei, and Zhao Yiwu all created their own performance art works. The year 2008 was an important point in the development of performance art in Anhui, and this had a lot to do with the fact that artist Chen Yufei joined Hefei University of Technology as a teacher. He strategically and continuously held performance art workshops, attracting a large number of young people to participate in the study, creation and practice of performance art, and organized a large number of on-site art activities, such as the “Recycling Station Art Group”, “Performance Art Open Class (Campus)”, etc., which attracted many young people. It has also organized a large number of on-site art activities, such as the “Recycling Station Art Group” and the “Performance Art Open Class (Campus)”, which have attracted the participation of many young artists and created a large number of behavioral art works, and greatly promoted the development of behavioral art in Anhui.
In addition, together with the continuous creation of artists such as Huang Zhen, Hu Yuepeng, many Yu, Mr. Nuan, etc., the performance art in Anhui has entered an unprecedented period of activity. Mr. Chen Yufei followed the clues of time in the sharing session and introduced in detail the nodal works, events and activities in the development of performance art in Anhui. This gave us an overall and in-depth knowledge of the history and current situation of performance art in Anhui. From the fifth session onwards, Warm Up has strengthened the on-site communication link. Since the audience is actively enrolled in the program, it is an effective audience interested in performance art. There were many excellent researchers from different disciplines, and the quality of the questions asked was very high and sincere.
